Princess Aurora (TV series)

Plot

Oh Ro-ra is a 25-year-old woman whose family owns Chunwang Foods, a large food conglomerate. Both of her parents are in their seventies and a 20-plus age difference exists between Ro-ra and her three other male siblings - Wang-sung, Geum-sung and Soo-sung. As the youngest child of a wealthy family, Ro-ra is charming, uber-confident and seemingly a spoiled material girl, but there's more to her than meets the eye. Unafraid to speak her mind, she intervenes to salvage her 50-year-old second brother's marriage by getting rid of his mistress who had lied about getting pregnant. One day, she falls head over heels for Hwang Ma-ma, an irritable novelist and perfectionist. But he has one flaw that could torpedo their relationship.

Aurora's family

Hwang Ma-ma's family

Sa-gong's family

Extended cast

Controversy

During its run, Princess Aurora became a fixture in the entertainment news headlines for both its over-the-top (called makjang in Korean) storylines and behind-the-scenes troubles.

On the 39th episode, the characters Oh Geum-sung and Oh Soo-sung (older brothers of the female protagonist) suddenly left for the United States to visit their wives. This meant that they were essentially written off the show. The actors playing them, Son Chang-min and Oh Dae-gyu, complained to the network that they weren't informed in advance of this development, and neither were their agencies; everyone, including the drama crew, only found out when they received the script before the scenes were to be filmed. This was reportedly writer Im Sung-han's decision; the actors had previously expressed their concerns to her about the storytelling's direction. The Korean press used the term "cast kill" to refer to the tendency of Im's past dramas (such as Dear Heaven, Assorted Gems, New Tales of Gisaeng) to abruptly kill off characters. In terms of production logistics, the fired actors still received the agreed-upon fixed salary for the duration of the series, regardless of screen time. But Im's move had possible legal ramifications, and she was criticized for unprofessionalism, since the actors signed on to the drama (and turned down other offers) with the expectation that their roles would be prominent.

As the show went on, Im wrote out more actors (more than 12 in total), resulting in a reportedly deteriorating atmosphere on set and notoriety in the press. With some characters killed off unceremoniously, viewers dubbed the series "Im Sung-han's Death Note," culminating in the death of male protagonist Hwang Ma-ma (played by Oh Chang-seok). Dissatisfaction with Im mounted when it became known that one of the cast members, Baek Ok-dam, is her niece. Netizens charged Im with nepotism when Baek's role was expanded in the wake of the firing of other cast members.

Princess Aurora also received warnings from the Korea Communications Standards Commissions, which cited the drama's "multiple immoral storylines and crude language" as violations of its standards. It was sanctioned for material unsuitable for younger audiences, since it aired during the early evening at 19:15.

As ratings continued to climb, the initially 120-episode drama received a 30-episode extension, bringing its final episode count to 150. However, Im asked for 50 additional episodes (in order to bring up the final count to 200), stating that she needed the additional time to flesh out her storylines. Calling the series "an insult to viewers' intelligence," viewers then organized a petition to protest the extension and demanded that Im be fired from the show. After it was leaked that Im was being paid ₩30 million (US$30,000) per episode (nearly ₩5 billion or US$5 million in total), the petition gained further traction; the initial goal was collecting 1,000 signatures, but the petition ultimately ended up with over 20,000 signatures. MBC eventually decided to end the series at 150 episodes, but retained Im as writer (although the network demanded rewrites for the scripts of the final two episodes). On December 11, 2013, Im posted a message on the show's website, "thanking netizens and reporters for their constancy in pointing out her flaws, and hoped that they would once again note her failings."